CHAPTER I 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE SWINE 

 INDUSTRY 



Live stock farming necessary. — It is imperative that 

 southern farmers grow more live stock if we are to have 

 a permanent system of agriculture. We can raise more 

 cotton by adopting a system of farming that will guar- 

 antee an increase in soil fertility instead of a continual 

 decrease, as at present. The tenant cotton farmer has no 

 attachment for his land. Even the cotton farmer who 

 owns his land is in reality a tenant, for he hopes that his 

 children may not need to live on his farm, but that they 

 will have something better. On the contrary, the man 

 on the live stock farm looks far into the future, and he is 

 more firmly attached to his land and has its future at 

 heart, and he is a true landowner and improver. 



Importance of soil conservation. — Over 40 per cent of 

 all products used in the factories of our country have 

 their origin in the soil. This makes agriculture the most 

 fundamental of all our national resources. We should, 

 therefore, take steps to conserve and add to our resources 

 of soil fertility rather than to continue depleting them, 

 as in the past. This is much more applicable to the 

 South than elsewhere, for here, not merely 40, but over 

 90 per cent, of the raw products used in our factories 

 come from the soil. Without a fertile soil the South can- 

 not long retain the position she now holds as the world's 

 greatest producer of cotton. We must also have foods. 



